This week’s media picks: infrastructure, Bangladesh safety, fracking, climate change, bioscience

FT (23/4/14): Leading article: Time to invest in Britain’s future

As the Prime Minister, David Cameron, and Chancellor, George Osborne, welcomed £36 billion investment in infrastructure projects, the Financial Times, remained to be impressed. In a leader, it said that one of the biggest and most persistent questions facing the UK economy is the worryingly low level of investment in infrastructure. Despite fine words, the government’s record is decidedly mixed, and the new set of initiatives may not match the scale needed to raise infrastructure spending to the level required. The FT outlines three areas of weakness in policy: 1) Spending is not high enough, and is persistently less than many of our competitors; 2) Given low interest rates, the government should borrow more to finance big projects; and 3) the government needs to establish a more stable and clearer framework for private sector investment.

Fibre2Fashion (24/4/14) Bangladesh Safety Accord on course, says UNI official

A year after the tragic collapse of the Rana Plaza factory building in Bangladesh, a demonstration of corporate social responsibility in action, rather than just words, is making progress towards improving the safety, prospects and lives of the country’s garment workers. Despite the many barriers to progress imposed by the political, social and commercial cultures of Bangladesh, the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh can be proud of its progress when it marks its own one year anniversary next month.

An official from, UNI Global, one of the two global union bodies that negotiated the Bangladesh Accord, Alke Boessiger, said: “The inspection program is in full operation. There is a strong team of more than more than 100 technical experts and engineers in Bangladesh who are conducting 45 inspections per week, with the aim to inspect 1500 factories by October.  More than 280 factories have been inspected for fire and electrical issues and 240 for structural safety.  Every inspection has revealed critical issues which must be repaired as a condition of doing business with signatory brands in the future. These issues include, for example, the absence of fire doors to separate the work area from the fire exit.  Brands are responsible to ensure that sufficient financial resources are available for the renovations and improvements.”

FT (24/4/14): Shale gas a multi-billion-pound opportunity for UK business

A report by EY, commissioned by the UKOOG, the shale-gas trade body, said that fracking shale gas could potentially generate 64,000 jobs in the oil and gas supply chain. It said that over the next 15 years, the UK would need to invest £17 billion on specialised fracking equipment and skills. This won’t mollify fracking’s opponents, but does at least show that the industry is seeking to make a positive, factually-based case for its development.

The Guardian (25/4/14): Kingfisher CEO warns on underestimating impact of climate change on business

In an opinion piece, Kingfisher plc CEO, Ian Cheshire urged business to sign a communiqué aimed at policymakers gathering in Paris next year for the UN Climate Change Conference. He warned that resource scarcity, energy price increases and extreme weather are real and growing threats to the long-term viability of business. That’s why hesigned the Trillion Tonne Communique, drawn up by the Prince of Wales’ Corporate Leaders Group, and is encouraging other business leaders to do so too. Adverse climate events are increasing costs for business, Kingfisher’s alone, were tens of millions of pounds, and as business doesn’t have a seat at the table, it needs more of them to sign the Trillion Tonne Communique to ensure that its voice is heard. 103 businesses world wide have signed so far, but it will require quite a few more to overcome the political resistance that clearly exists in some quarters.

FT (25/4/14): UK medical science drive shaken by US takeover fears

News that AstraZeneca was approached by Pfizer about a £60 billion takeover, has called into question the UK’s ambition to remain a leading global player in life sciences. AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline are the only large companies with research and development operations in the UK. Oxford University’s Professor John Bell said: “If we were to lose one of them it would be a real blow to our capabilities. It’s a sector that is crucial to our future economic success. The news prompted Andrew Miller MP, Chairman of the House of Commons science committee to call for tougher standards to protect strategic UK assets, such as considering the national interest when looking at takeovers. Steve Bates, chief executive of the UK Bioindustry Association, pointed to successful smaller biotech companies, but said: “It is important to have whales in the ecosystems around which minnows can flourish.”

This week’s media

It’s been  a short week, but here are a few articles worth reading if you missed them:

FT:Labour urged to court business

Former Labour Cabinet minster, Alan Milburn, has risked stoking tensions between New Labour-ites and Milibandists, by calling on the party to “embrace an avowedly pro-business agenda.” In a Financial Times article, he says that there are encouraging signs that the Labour leadership is trying to rebuild bridges with business, but they need to go “further and faster”. Ideas he suggests include supporting a Heathrow third runway, HS2, being tough on public expenditure, while using public funding to support high-tech innovation. A Labour insider, dismissing Milburn, said: “We’re not going to get into a game with the Tories where they get a load of business people to write a letter to The Times and we try to match it.”

The Times:Shale gas can help to prevent global warming

A report by the United Nations’Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), says that shale gas can help the world avoid climate change, but only if it displaced coal. IPCC report co-chairman, Professor Ottmar Edenhofer said: “The shale gas revolution…can be very consistent with low-carbon development…Gas can be very helpful as a bridge technology.” However, as regards the UK, IPPC report member, UCL Professor Jim Skea said that exploiting the UK’s shale gas reserves would not reduce its emissions, as it would simply displace imported gas.

The Guardian:The shirt on your back: the human cost of the Bangladeshi garment industry

One year on from the Rana Plaza disaster, which killed more than 1,130 people, The Guardian traces, in video, words and pictures, the life cycle of cheap garments from Dhaka to the West. The video illustrates, for the duration of your progress through the feature, how much a worker will have earned and how much the industry will have sold in the UK – take a guess before you start. Although the Bangladesh Accord is not mentioned, workers, trade unions, clothing companies and NGOs are now looking to it to make a difference.

This week’s media picks worth a read

We found these articles worth reading, you might too depending on your interests.

FT: Criticism of energy groups overshadows good news in [wind] sector

The changing view of the “big six” energy companies is symbolized by a recent Mirror front page headline that showed Centrica CEO, Sam Laidlaw as the “blackout blackmailer”. Commons energy select committee chairman, Tim Yeo, cannot remember energy being such a high-profile issue in his 30 years as MP. The CMA referral and the Tories proposed block on onshore wind farms have exacerbated fear in the sector. But Siemens’ Yorkshire wind turbine factory and the investment push by Dong, Statoil, Statkraft and Vattenfall show that “the big six are not the only game in town.”

FT:Labour vows to spread wealth away from London

In a little-noticed speech Ed Miliband confirmed Labour’s move away from the old regional development agencies as a means of generating growth in the English regions. Instead, the new local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) would be retained and the focus would be on cities, city-regions and partnerships of councils.

The Guardian:Government contractors begin to realise public trust is an end in itself
Jim Bligh, head of public services at the CBI, writes that the private sector is starting to recognise that building public trust is a worthy end in itself. The risks of not being transparent – of hiding behind bureaucracy or commercial confidentiality – far outweigh the risks of the alternative. Transparency ultimately shines a light on good performance and bad performance alike, which means that it can greatly improve the competitive dynamic. The losers will be companies and public bodies which simply aren’t performing well enough.

The New Yorker: Heartbleed: an example of ungovernability

You may not yet have heard of Heartbleed, the latest cyber-threat, but you are probably already a victim of it. The New Yorker reports on why one respected cryptography expert describes the threat of Heartbleed as 11 on a scale of one to ten. Was it on the Government’s cyber-crime radar? And even if it was, what can one Government do to tackle what is a global threat?

The Independent: Over here for the beer

A bevy of brewers is increasingly flocking to London from overseas. Discover why the English beer regulations make the capital the place to be for German and US brewers thirsty for innovation

The Independent: Erdogan: from model strongman to tinpot dictator

The Turkish premier’s decline into authoritarianism has dangerous geopolitical consequences.

This week’s media selection: London advances on digital, retreats on financial; Budget politics; “clicktivism”

Evening Standard: Tech City boss: Britain can now follow London’s success

The new CEO of London’s Tech City, Gerard Grech, said that Britain can now cement its place as a global player in digital technology and entrepreneurial industries. Tech City has grown from 200 digital companies at launch in 2010, to 1,300 today. Grech will work on the “four Ps”; policy, partnerships, promotion and programmes, and will relay entrepreneurs’ concerns to government.

The Independent: New York replaces London as financial capital of the world

New York has over taken London as the world’s leading financial centre as the City’s reputation has been hurt by banking and market scandals, uncertainty over EU membership and the referendum on Scottish independence.

The Times: Osborne’s Budget gives the Tories new hope

Former Conservative Home editor, Tim Montgomerie, argues that while George Osborne may not have conquered Britain’s economic challenges he offers the best policies.

FT: Tories should not expect an election dividend

In contrast to Tim Montgomerie, University of Essex professor of government, Anthony King, argues that voters are more impressed by the squeeze on their real incomes than by Osborne’s triumphalist rhetoric. What makes matters worse, is the electoral system, which requires the Tories to be at least 11 points ahead in order to win a majority.

FT: Web activists tear down corporate walls

Large corporations are being forced into climbdowns by partly by social media and “clicktivism”. Twitter and Facebook are turbocharging critical messages as never before, making it harder than ever for companies to control the terms of public discourse. Companies are being dragged into a new world of “private politics”, which is led by activists, not government. This is forcing them into positions on issues that are only tangentially related to their businesses.

This week’s media picks

From a selection of media stories: Labour gives itself a little bit more definition. Do senior Tories think they will fail to win the next election? Here comes the Budget…

FT: Political risk rises high up the agenda in boardrooms

Business leaders are feeling under pressure on a range of political/policy issues, eg energy prices, immigration, Scottish independence, EU membership, the “debacle” over airport development, or the “complete failure to deal with planning”. As one FTSE chairman put it: “It is so difficult to know whether the rhetoric is reality.” (A perennial problem when it comes to politics.)

FT: City on alert for Labour’s political reckoning

Recent bank bonuses seem to have emboldened shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, to tolerate, or is that, promise, a bank bonus tax. Labour is hoping to raise up to £2 billion, which would be used to fund its job guarantee for the young jobless. This may harm Labour’s business credentials, but will it be a vote winner?

FT: Ed Miliband: Europe needs reform but Britain belongs at its heart

In a further attempt this week by Labour to define its political positioning, its leader, Ed Miliband outlined his stance on the EU. He committed Labour to holding an in-out referendum, were there to be a further transfer of powers from the UK to the EU, something which is unlikely in the next Parliament. He conceded that the EU’s reputation is at a low ebb, and that “if Britain’s future in Europe is to be secured, Europe needs to work better for Britain.” To this end, a Labour government would seek tougher EU rules on immigration and foreign benefits claimants.

Guardian: Have Boris, Gove and Osborne written off the 2015 election?

Conservative Home editor, and former Tory MP, Paul Goodman, argues that the outbreak of infighting among senior Tories over the future leadership of the party betrays a lack of confidence in David Cameron’s ability to pull off a majority election win in 2015. By contrast, whatever the views of senior Labour politicians on Ed Miliband’s leadership, they are doing a good job at keeping them private. The more that Conservatives ventilate their problems publicly, the more likely that they will help Ed Miliband win.

 

Daily Telegraph: Budget 2014 announcement: What to expect

George Osborne will deliver the 2014 Budget at 12.30 Wednesday March 19. Here are some of the things to look out for, not that any of this has been pre-briefed, of course…

Media catch-up

In case you missed them, hear is a selection of media articles from this week that are worth a read, or a re-read:

BBC online: Bill-by-Bill progress report on Coalition’s plans: At the end of a week where the Lobbying Bill has advanced and a Tory rebellion failed, what’s the bigger picture when it comes to the Coalition’s delivery of the Bills in the last Queen’s speech? Here, the BBC kindly summarises the answer…

FT: David Cameron admits Labour’s 50p tax plan is ‘politically convenient’: Polls indicate that Labour’s 50p tax rate is popular with ordinary voters – 60 per cent of voters agree with the plan. But YouGov pollster, Anthony Wells, says it risks playing into a wider perception of Labour being anti-business.

FT: Davey to back energy industry calls for tougher regulation of North Sea: Shock, horror! Believe it or not, an industry is calling for tougher regulation, and the minister supports them. Energy Secretary, Ed Davey is expected to back demands from the industry for a much tougher regulatory regime in the North Sea, requiring companies to collaborate to maximise the recovery of oil and gas from existing fields and new discoveries.

The Times: Aerospace adds jet-powered boost to the economy: Figures from UK aerospace trade body, ADS, show that booming production of commercial jetliners is bringing in more than £1 billion of new business to the UK’s civil aerospace industry. ADS argues that the figures show how important the sector is to UK economy, and the government needs to maintain support for companies that could take their operations overseas.

BBC online: Location, salvation, damnation: Striking oil in your back garden won’t make you rich, but will add to the Queen’s coffers. Property and land ownership laws have taken some strange turns over the years. Here the BBC looks at where common sense and legal lunacy have crossed paths to leave the UK – and the US – with some anachronistic quirks.

FT: UK wind power company scraps farm plans: Cheshire-based, Community Windpower has scrapped plans to build two new wind farms because of the government’s “constantly shifting” position on renewable energy. It said that it has been forced to abandon one project in Cornwall and another in Lancashire, which together would have supported 120 construction jobs. Government plans to force green generators to bid for subsidies were “likely to crash the price at best…or stop generators selling green energy altogether.”

Were you up for Portillo (on lobbying)?

Last week, on the BBC’s This Week programme, former MP and memorable victim of the electorate’s wrath, Michael Portillo, spoke about the recent so-called lobbying scandal.

Since seeing it live – it’s on at about 11.30pm, putting off most viewers – I’ve watched it on BBC iPlayer many times. In about 90 seconds, he beautifully sums up the churlishness of portraying the recent stings on politicians as a scandal about lobbyists, even though none were involved. This is a point being made by many decent, integrity-driven public affairs practitioners, and one which is roundly ignored by the media.  [If anyone reading can tell me when the last lobbying scandal worthy of national media hysteria that actually did involve lobbyists was, please do let me know.]

But Portillo goes a step further even than that, expounding the crucial role that lobbying plays in politics. He goes so far to say that without lobbying, politics would not function. You can watch it here, 25 minutes into the show:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b02w2wxt/This_Week_06_06_2013/

Or, if you can’t be bothered to click on it, or are simply unwilling to catch a glimpse of Andrew Neil in the presenter’s chair, here’s a transcript of what Portillo said:

“It’s perfectly clear that the things of which these people are accused would be offences. They would be against the rules and they would certainly lead to their expulsion from their parties and possibly suspension from Parliament, and so on. So it’s perfectly clear that the rules are already in place.

Secondly, it’s pretty clear that these people were all caught by a sting; in other words, there wasn’t a real lobbyist involved at all… So actually, creating a register has nothing to do with what’s just happened… If you create the register, you simply allow people to find our more easily, the people that are genuine lobbyists and those that are journalists.

But let me make a fundamental point: all politics rests upon lobbying. The principle rooms in Parliament are called lobbies. And the reason they exist is to allow the public to come into Parliament and visit their Members of Parliament, and they meet them in a place called a lobby, which is the origin of the term, and the interchange between the people who have interests, which need to be considered or even protected by Parliament and the people in Parliament, is fundamental to the democratic process. And since time immemorial, to smooth the interface between the public and the different vest interests, and the Members of Parliament, there have been people who undertake lobbying, and lobbying can be a very respectful thing, and without lobbying, politics wouldn’t function.”

Do me a favour, don’t do me a favour

Just days before the latest lobbying scandal that didn’t involve lobbyists broke, the Financial Times, expressed concern about the so-called revolving door through which civil servants and ministers pass to join companies as lobbyists. The drift of it’s columnist, John Gapper, was that we should be worried that decisions could thus, be made on the basis of favours.

We should certainly concern ourselves with how government decisions are made, but as I argued in a letter to the FT earlier this week; if you want to influence government effectively, there is no substitute for having a credible, well-argued and factually-based proposal.

In case you missed it, here is the text of my letter:

“Sir, I don’t doubt that former civil servants, ex-ministers, or even the occasional former prime minister can help businesses to influence government policy (“We should worry about the revolving door for jobs”, Comment, May 30). However, regardless of the status of such advisers, government policy is not decided on the basis of “special favours”. If government policy or procurement decisions cannot be justified on policy or financial grounds, or for meeting stated political objectives, then the dispensers of these favours would very quickly be found out.

John Gapper’s lobbyist informant is perfectly correct; large businesses do not need favours, as they will be listened to anyway. I was a special adviser for seven years, and I would never have risked my position by giving out favours to anyone.

Any business, large or small, that wants to influence government decisions will find that there is no substitute for having a credible, well-argued and factually-based proposal. There is no mystery or black arts involved. Advisers add value by helping businesses to articulate their case clearly and effectively. If they do that, then there is no need for favours.”

In other words: “Do me a favour; don’t do me a favour”.

A house divided can stand

Abraham Lincoln quoted scripture when he said of the young United States, as it faced threats of seccession by southern slave-owning states, that a divided house cannot stand. He went on to defeat these threats in the bloodiest war the United States has ever endured.

The British government doesn’t face quite the same existential threat, thankfully. But the steady occurrence of divisive political issues keeps raising the spectre of the Coalition’s collapse.

Yesterday in Parliament we were treated to the bizarre spectacle of the Prime Minister, David Cameron’s, statement opposing much of the Leveson report on the press, being starkly contradicted by his Deputy, Nick Clegg, who supports it. Also in Parliament yesterday, we saw the Lib Dem energy secretary, Ed Davey, present his battle-scarred Energy Bill, with his wind-sceptic Tory junior, John Hayes, sitting behind him, glowering supportively.

We’ve also had, recently, the unceremonious ditching by the Conservatives of Lords reform advocated by the Lib Dems. As an eye for an eye, the Lib Dems have said that they will oppose the re-drawing of Parliamentary boundary changes that would have benefited their coalition partners.

Opposition MPs’ criticism that Lib Dem ministers who can’t abide by collective responsibility should resign is an obvious debating point. This ignores the fact that it is in the nature of governments to set precedents. And with the first peacetime coalition formed purely as a result of Parliament being hung, the nature of the government itself is unprecedented.

The rules of collective responsibility have been re-written. There will no doubt be more intra-Coalition spats in the months to come, but none of them will bring down the Coalition until one, or both, parties decides that it’s time to pull down the temple.

The Coalition may eventually reach the point where it falls apart, but my hunch is that this won’t happen until well into 2014 at the earliest. The reason is that both parties are wedded to austerity and need to be able to demonstrate that it has worked. The economy will need to have returned clearly to growth, or be showing credible signs that it will do so. Only then can they face the electorate and be able to tell them that the pain has been worth it.

We will then face the delicious irony that as soon as the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats can demonstrate that the Coalition has been successful, they might then decide to terminate it. Quite what the electorate will make of that, we will have to wait and see.

‘Elf ‘n’ safety. ‘Oo needs it?

In recent years, health and safety has taken its place alongside the European Union as an easy target for populist political baiting and slaying of myths. We’ve all heard of the EU’s straight bananas, although I’ve yet to see one. Now we have ‘elf ‘n’ safety threatening our way of life. Schools have banned children from playing conkers and toothpicks are too lethal for restaurants to provide at the end of a meal, etc, etc…

Within weeks of the general election, former Tory business secretary, Lord Young, was appointed to carry out an initial review of what he called, our “music hall joke” health and safety legislation. Subsequently, a more sober approach was taken by Professor Ragnar Lofstedt of King’s College, London, who was appointed in March 2011 to carry out an independent review of health and safety regulations and to “identify opportunities to simplify the rules”.

Lofstedt reported in November and all of his recommendations were accepted by employment minister, Chris Grayling. These included exempting some self-employed people from compliance with safety law, a review of core safety law to see if some common requirements can be consolidated and simplification of the Health and Safety Executive’s 53 approved codes of practice.

He has now been commissioned to produce a follow-up “mini report” assessing progress made on implementing his original recommendations and looking at specific issues such as the Work At Height regulations, and consolidating regulations limited to specific sectors, such as construction.

Yet, despite the fact that we have a university professor supported by Department for Work Pensions officials and an advisory panel including a Conservative MP, the Chair of the Olympic Delivery Authority and a representative of the British Chambers of Commerce, the Prime Minister still felt the need earlier this year to refer to the “health and safety monster” that is hampering business growth.

Last week I attended the annual Health and Safety Expo at the National Exhibition Centre. I didn’t see any signs of a monster. What I did see were hundreds of businesses and professionals who view health and safety policy as a means of improving business efficiency by reducing workplace accidents, injuries and illnesses. They included everyone from suppliers of gloves, hard hats, goggles and lighting, to safety harnesses, scaffolding and hydraulic lifts.

None of them is seeking to be a burden on business. Rather, they are providing equipment and services whose ultimate aim is to reduce the real burden on business, arising from workplace deaths and injuries. In the past two years, 323 people have died in the workplace and in 2010/11 there were 24,726 major injuries to employees – more than 40 percent caused by slipping or tripping. Workplace injury accounted for 4.4 million working days lost.

It’s not about more regulation or legislation. As one industry representative put it in a seminar at the Health and Safety Expo, “Communication and training are just as important as regulations”.

According to the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health, by spending time and energy on getting health and safety management right, business could save nearly £8 billion annually, individuals more than £5 billion, and the economy as a whole £22 billion.

Health and safety; it’s a serious business, not a music hall joke.